Recent Gallup polls found that direct marketing was the most common communications medium during the late 90’s. Direct marketing refers to direct mail, mail order, coupon advertising, telephone marketing, direct response tv, door to door salesman, web sites, or any other method of marketing that aims to make a sale right then and there.

89 percent of marketing directors use direct mail to generate leads, while 48 percent use it to generate sales Direct mail is very expensive and should never be tried without the help of a marketing company. But as always it is best to be informed before trying any new marketing medium.

How you can gain information on how to set up a great campaign is to take a look at the best in direct mail.

Successful Direct Mail Marketers:

L. L. Bean

Lands End

Hammacher Schlemmer

Brookstone

Fandom

Online internet stores are considered a new form of direct mail as well. The best quite simply is Amazon. Other great sites include:

Yahoo

EBay

L. L. Bean

Lands End

American Outfitters

Abercrombie and Fitch

Delia

In a future article I’ll take a look at why these sites and many like them are successful, but for now I’ll stick with more traditional direct mail.

Oversized addressing will give the customer the pleasure of seeing there name in print

A business sized envelope with first class stamp and no return address will stimulate interest

Tips on the enclosed letter

Use to follow up on salesperson call

Set up an appointment

Compliment the reader

Recognize an anniversary or birthday

Celebrate holidays

Solidify telephone contact

Thank your customer

Thank customer for their time if they didn’t buy from you

Mention you saw someone in the news

Send get well notes

Announce a new product or service

More Direct Mail Tips

The worst months for direct mail are June, March, and May.

The best are January, February, and October.

January through March are the best times for business direct mail

Give free gifts for ordering, include a picture of the product on the envelope, or a free trial

10 percent of addresses go bad each year on mailing lists

Offer a guarantee, special payment terms

You should have twice as many “you’s” in a sentence as I’s or me’s

Write about your customers hopes and dreams and then list your products solutions to those problems

Write your letter then let it sit and rewrite it until it is as short as possible

Don’t send envelopes with address labels instead type directly on the envelope and for personal or feminine
causes hand write the address

Use a teaser on the envelope such as Free or ask a leading question that will perk their interests to open the envelope

Write information on the back of the envelope

Include something bulky in your envelope such as a free gift

Use a P.S. maybe hand written to motivate to take action, reinforce your offer, emphasize a bonus, emphasize
the price, introduce a surprise benefit, stress tax deductibility, highlight your guarantee

Put a time limit on the offer

Allow customer to check bill me or use a credit card

Place ad for mail order information on the back page of a magazine or newspaper

Send a postcard instead of a direct mail letter

Tips Marketing Catalog

Your Marketing Catalog must have the proper positioning, the right merchandise, the right graphics, the right use of color, the right size (32 pages is standard), the right headlines, subheads, copy, and order forms. Here are some more tips you should follow to the letter:

Before thinking about printing catalogs you should have 25,000 customers and the money to afford printing 25,000 plus catalogs

If you don’t have 25,000 customers you can start by printing a gate fold catalog of six or eight pages

You will need to sell over 30,000 dollars worth of merchandise just to break even if you plan to sell by catalog

Mail your catalog before Christmas

Your copy should be a mini ad for each product your selling and yet concise

Offer a discount for buying more than they normally would

Look at catalogs put out by Abercrombie and Fitch, L. L. Bean, etc. and use there format

Preplan all elements of your catalog before going into production such as products, prices, fulfillment, etc.

If possible group your offerings into clearly defined groups so that your catalog is easily used and understood

Your layout must be organized, logical, and pleasing to the eye

See if your manufacturers will provide for you pictures of models using those products for which you wish to display in your catalogs

Personal Experience in Direct Mail

I’ve personally been involved in 5 major direct mail campaigns ($300,000 + Campaigns). 4 with major corporations and one with a medium sized corporation. I’ve also run countless small business campaigns. In 3 of the large campaigns I used manufacturers photos in cooperation with my own layouts and in the other 2 I took the pictures myself.

All 5 campaigns were successful in that inventory sold out. An average of two weeks to a month was invested in each campaign which included in all cases the following:

Personal Letter

6 page gate fold catalog

Customer database, set up as described earlier

Order sheet

Online store

Tele-selling by 2 to 4 full time sales people

As with all other forms of marketing direct mail has both its positives and negatives. With those tips listed above and the help of a marketing company with experience in direct mail I believe it may be one of the best ways to market. You can now get good cheap results with a great lead list, email marketing system and great copy writing.

I hope this helps you move product with Direct Mail marketing or avoid it all together because you now know how much it costs. If you have any questions leave them below.

Till next time…

18 Responses to “Marketing Examples: Direct Mail Tips”

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